Grooved tile and method of cutting same to form discrete elements



Nov. 14, 1961 s. E. RICE 3,008,

GROOVED TILE AND 111111101: 0F comm; SAME TO FORM DISCRETE ELEMENTS Filed March 31, 1958 IN V EN TOR.

t? BY m fimcxm A TTOEA/E Y5 United States Patent 3,008,256 GROOVED TILE AND METHOD OF CUTTING SAME TO FORM DISCRETE ELEMENTS Stanley E. Rice, Chicago, Ill., assignor, by mesue assignments, to The Cambridge Tile Manufacturing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Mar. 31, 1958, Ser. No. 725,294 3 Claims. (Cl. 41-23) This invention relates to an article and a method for decorating surfaces with ceramic tile.

In these days of do-it-yourself, home craftsmen have been decorating coffee tables, end tables, wall surfaces and the like with ceramic tile. The difficult with present materials suitable for this purpose is that they lack the degree of versatility to permit the decorator to develop designs and patterns of his own choosing. Thus, the uniformity of contour or shape limits the design, however original, in other respects, to a geometricity which cannot aciifier appreciably in appearance from the convention The object of the present invention is to provide tiles which may be sub-divided by theartisan into a variety of shapes greatly expanding the range of designs or patterns which he may produce through his own creative eifort, but also amenable to production with modern tile making equipment so that such tiles may be sold at low cost. This is accomplished, in accordance with the invention, by providing a tile having a uniformly decorated surface on one side thereof and having a plurality of intersecting cleavage lines scored in the other surface thereof, through which the tile may be sub-divided into shapes of the artisans choosing, limited only by the lines of cleavage which the tiles contain on their back face. Preferably, the cleavage lines are scored to form a plurality of squares, perhaps 36 to a standard tile. While a typical form of the invention embodies scoring of the back faces of the tile into uniform squares, the invention embraces many other forms or patterns of scoring both geometrical and curvilinear.

Tiles which are subdivided with cleavage lines for mosaic work are known. However, it has been heretofore impossible to create from a single tile a geometric shape having one or more re-entering angles. Prior tiles for mosaic work have therefore been limited to certain rectangular regularity. In accordance with the present invention re-entering angles can be cut into a single tile. This feature of the invention is attained by providing deep recesses at the intersections of cleavage lines, the recesses permitting a cut to stop at the recessed intersection without going completely through the tile. It is thereby possible to remove a small segment from a tile, the cut edge having an angle of less than 180, leaving a similar reentering angle in the remaining tile.

The home decorator can, through the use of standard nippers or nippers having appropriately formed jaws, cut fromthe tile of the present invention a wide variety of shapes of tile portions which when fit together with other tile portions of varying colors will form a mosaic in accordance with the persons individual taste.

Other objects of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following description of the invention taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a mosaic showing the application of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of a tile formed in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a cross sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 6 is across-sectional view showing an alternative construction; V 7

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary view in perspective showing the method of using the present invention; and

FIGURE 8 is a diagrammatic view of anipper jaw edge.

Referring to the drawings, FIGURE 1 shows a surface 10 for example, the top of a coffee table having a border 11. The surface has been partially decorated with tile portions 12, 14, 16 and 18 in accordance with this invention. In theillnstration, the tile portions have been cross hatched to illustrate differing surface ornamentation or color for each type of tile. It is to be understood that the configuration of FIGURE 1 is illustrative only and should in no way limit the scope of the present invention.

The tiles of FIGURE 1 show L-shaped tiles 12, crossshaped tile portions 1 4, square tile portions16 and rectop-surface Not the tile.

tangular tile portions 18. These shapes of course are only representative of a number of shapes which are obt-ainable through the practice of the present invention.

' FIGURE 2 illustrates the uniform characteristic of the Here too, a wide variety of s'urfaceornamentations are envisioned. The tiles can be produced of a uniform overall size but in a multitude of colors and differing physical surface characteristics,'from smooth 'to undulating or glazed rock-face.

Thelower surface 22 of each tile, as illustrated in FIGURE 3, is scored with vertical cleavage lines 24 and horizontal cleavage lines 26. From FIGURES 4 and 5, it will be observed that the cleavage lines are about as wide as they are deep and have a depth approximately one-half the thickness of the tile, the tile normally being one-fourth inch thick more or less depending on the composition of the body. The depth of the cleavage lines is of some importance since cleavage lines which are too deep would result in a tile which is too fragile for the requirements of practice or shipment while cleavage lines which are too shallow make difficult the fracturing of the tile into the desired shapes.

The tile of the present invention can be produced with standard commercial equipment which includes two dies for pressing ceramic powder into the standard size tiles. The only significant change necessary in such commercial equipment is in the surface configuration of the die which forms the bottom surface of the tiles. Instead of being flat, this surface is provided with intersecting ribs which form the desired cleavage lines in the pressed tile.

At the point of intersection of the die ribs, a small protuberance may be formed in order to form a depression at the intersection of cleavage lines in the bottom of the tile, as shown at 27 in FIGURE 6.

After forming in the dies, the tiles are treated by firing and glazing in the usual manner. The tile portions may be cut from each tile by tapping the cleavage lines with a chisel and hammer or through the use of nippers 28 as illustrated in FIGURE 7. The nippers 28 are formed with a standard straight edge 30 which close together to fracture the tile along the selected cleavage lines. For cutting the Lshaped tile portions having configurations other than rectangular, the edges of the nipper may be formed as illustrated at 32 in FIGURE 8. The angulated nipper ends 32 are applied at intersections of cleavage lines 24 and 26 where the recesses 27 appear in order to cut reentering angles into the tiles, thus permitting the formation of shapes such as are shown at 12 and 1 4 in FIG. 1.

In application of the invention, the do-it-yourself home decorator determines the particular mosaic which he would like to form and selects tiles formed in accordance with the present invention and having the particular surface configuration and color desired. Using nippers as shown in FIGURES 6 and 7, he fractures the tiles to obtain his desired tile portions and adhesively secures the tile portions to the surface to be decorated in accordance with a 3 his original mosaic. Thus, he is not limited to the mosaic patterns designed for him by the commercial tile manufacturers but is free to design his own patterns in accordance with his own artistic; taste. w V Ina general manner, while there has been disclosed in the above description to be the most practical embodiment of -the invention, itwonld be well understood that the i11 vention is not limited to such embodiment as there might be changes made in the arrangement, disposition and form of the parts without departing from the principle of the present invention as comprehended within the scope of the accompanying claims.

p1. A decorativetile comprising, "a flat; ceramic plate, a

glazed surface of uniform decor on one sideof said plate, a plurality "of equally spaced parallelcieavage line's scorin'gthe opposite side of said pljatein a first direction and'a plurality-of equally spaced parallel cleavagelines scoring.

thereof, comprising the steps of forming a plurality of intersecting cleavage lines on the unfinished surfaces thereof, forming depressions in the unfinished surfaces of said tiles at the intersection of said cleavage lines, cutting varying geometric shapes from each tile, in part, by cutting a first cleavage line .to'an intersecting cleavage line at said depression and cutting said i-ntersecting cleavage line in a direction away from said intersecting'cleavage line to remove tile portion having an angle :of cut of less than 180, and securing theremaining portions of tiles to a surface in edge abutting relation. 7

3. The method of making a decorated surface with ceramic tiles each having a glazedrsurface of uniform decor on the finished sides thereofcomprising the steps of forming a plurality of intersecting cleavage lines and depressions at the intersections thereof on the unfinished surfaces thereof, cutting varying geometric shapes from each tile, at least in part, by cutting a re-entering angle having a depression at its apex into at least one of said 20 tiles, and securing the out tile to a surface inredlge abuting depressions in said opposite sides of said plates at the intersections of said cleavage lines and extending 'SJJbStQlJ.

25 tially deeper into saidiplates than said cleavage ting relation.

References Cited in the fiix0f this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 702,328 Parker lune-l0, 1902 1,872,522 Stuckey :Aug. 16, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS 6 Fra Ju 3, .1926 

